Problems in Intercultural Communication

Recently, people have become more aware of these issues and how different cultures handle them differently. These are issues that can be avoided when proper steps are taken to avoid them in the first instance. This article looks at some of the examples of intercultural communication issues and how to avoid them so that miscommunications or conflicts will not occur. Before proceeding further with intercultural communication problems, we need to know the basic principles of intercultural communication. According to Endre et al, there are four basic principles of intercultural communication. Different languages, customs, histories, financial policies—these issues can slow down business or even scuttle deals altogether. It's common for companies to assume that differences will disappear once a deal is struck, but these intercultural obstacles remain once a contract is signed and could turn an otherwise lucrative relationship sour.

Cross-cultural miscommunication isn’t a problem that can be solved overnight, but learning new ways of communicating with people from different cultures and backgrounds is possible. By being aware of your cultural tendencies, you can also improve your communication and negotiation skills with culturally different people. To ensure success abroad, companies must look at how their partners react to different social cues and learn how to be more sensitive when dealing with colleagues from other countries. Family is the place where culture is learned, and families, in a small way, develop their own cultures (Baldwin, 2017). Family, culture, and communication are intertwined and this occurs in several ways. Family life can be difficult for people with different cultures because it’s centered on relationships.

That could be how they think of marriage, for example, some societies oppose the marriage of people of the same sex, or how they care for their children. It can also be how often they interact with extended family members or even what they eat at dinner time. If you’re a polyglot who has lived abroad, or if your job involves managing employees who speak different languages, then I'm sure that you’ve struggled with communicating your ideas clearly when doing so requires translating into someone else's mother tongue. However, remember that those language barriers are also present within your home country and that even natives struggle to make themselves understood sometimes. When people of different cultures meet, they often have trouble communicating effectively.

Stereotypes are one explanation for these issues in intercultural communication. A stereotype is a simplified generalization about an entire group of people or a social category and can be both positive and negative. Intercultural communication problems are issues commonly faced every day by individuals around the world. Getting to overcome this requires personal, interpersonal skills as there is no hard or fast rule to end this. It also encompasses investigating and overcoming misunderstandings that often arise because of differences in culture, language, or gender. Most times, people usually do not behave based on universally applied rules but, rather, take their cues from subtle cultural signals. As a result, it is essential to be aware of and understand cross-cultural behavior if one wants to have successful interactions with culturally different people.